The Day of New London published the following op-ed written by Mark Braverman on December 30, 2007. It may be found on The Day's web site and also appears in many other places on the web.
The op-ed was entitled "Palestine Is Being Destroyed" and includes the following attribution: "Mark Braverman is a clinical psychologist living in Bethesda, Md. He recently spoke at the "Tree of Life Conference on Israel and Palestine" held in Old Lyme."
The op-ed contains numerous unsupportable assertions and absurd opinions.
The "comments" are directly from the op-ed; the "analyses" are from PRIMER. The entire op-ed is included if one strings the "comments" together.
Comment:
I am the grandson of a fifth- generation Palestinian Jew. My grandfather, born in the Old City of Jerusalem, emigrated to the United States early in the last century. I am a proud Jew, loyal to my tradition and to my people. Zionism was as much a part of my religious upbringing as praying in the synagogue and observing the Jewish holidays. But I am strongly opposed to the policies of the state of Israel toward the Palestinian people, policies supported by the U.S. and by many of my fellow Jews here in the United States.
I am the grandson of a fifth- generation Palestinian Jew. My grandfather, born in the Old City of Jerusalem, emigrated to the United States early in the last century. I am a proud Jew, loyal to my tradition and to my people. Zionism was as much a part of my religious upbringing as praying in the synagogue and observing the Jewish holidays. But I am strongly opposed to the policies of the state of Israel toward the Palestinian people, policies supported by the U.S. and by many of my fellow Jews here in the United States.
Analysis:
The author's own words belie the assertion that he is loyal to the Jewish people as well as the implication that it is only policies of the Jewish state to which he is opposed; his role as moderator at the 2007 "Tree of Life" conference at the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme, a conference at which the underlying theme was the delegitimization of Israel, further belies that assertion.
Comment:
In letters and columns published in The Day, some of my fellow Jews have criticized the efforts of The Rev. David Good and the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme to bring a measure of justice and sanity to the situation in Israel and Palestine. I understand the fear that motivates this opposition and know it well.
In letters and columns published in The Day, some of my fellow Jews have criticized the efforts of The Rev. David Good and the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme to bring a measure of justice and sanity to the situation in Israel and Palestine. I understand the fear that motivates this opposition and know it well.
Analysis:
The the first "Tree of Life" conference in 2005, one of the invited speakers was Mark Rosenblum, one of the founders of Americans for Peace Now. During one of the discussions after some of the presentations, he remarked that if one just had Israelis and Palestinians come together and agree it's all Israel's fault, that's not "conflict resolution."
Professor Rosenblum was not invited back; nor have the organizers again invited anyone as middle-of-the-road as someone from the far-left Americans for Peace Now.
The efforts referred to were not efforts to "bring a measure of justice and sanity to the situation in Israel" and the disputed territories; they were efforts to demonize and delegitimize Israel.
Comment:
I have been honored and blessed to have played a small part in the work of the Rev. Good and his congregation over the past several years. I first met them in 2006 while traveling throughout New England with three women -- two Palestinians and an Israeli -- speaking to groups, including this congregation, about their work for peace between Israel and Palestinian people. I heard this fear and this anger often from Jews in our audiences. I heard it from a college student planning to emigrate to Israel, who, in tears, protested that we must have it wrong about Israel -- how could we smash her dream?
I heard it from the many Jews who demanded, indeed pleaded for a "balanced" picture, who wanted "equal time" for consideration of the violence from Palestinians that presumably creates the basis for Israeli retaliation in its various forms.
But the situation is not balanced.
I have been honored and blessed to have played a small part in the work of the Rev. Good and his congregation over the past several years. I first met them in 2006 while traveling throughout New England with three women -- two Palestinians and an Israeli -- speaking to groups, including this congregation, about their work for peace between Israel and Palestinian people. I heard this fear and this anger often from Jews in our audiences. I heard it from a college student planning to emigrate to Israel, who, in tears, protested that we must have it wrong about Israel -- how could we smash her dream?
I heard it from the many Jews who demanded, indeed pleaded for a "balanced" picture, who wanted "equal time" for consideration of the violence from Palestinians that presumably creates the basis for Israeli retaliation in its various forms.
But the situation is not balanced.
Analysis:
Braverman is correct about the situation not being balanced, but his analysis of how it is not balanced is ... unbalanced.
Comment:
Palestine is being destroyed. Israel has all the power. The Palestinian people -- a good, patient people -- are being ground into the dirt, their leaders killed, imprisoned or exiled, their young people impoverished and robbed of a future. Any possibility for nonviolent protest is made all but impossible by a brutal military occupation.
Palestine is being destroyed. Israel has all the power. The Palestinian people -- a good, patient people -- are being ground into the dirt, their leaders killed, imprisoned or exiled, their young people impoverished and robbed of a future. Any possibility for nonviolent protest is made all but impossible by a brutal military occupation.
Analysis:
Since "Palestine," as a political entity, has never existed, it cannot possibly be destroyed, although the leadership of the Palestinian Arabs have repeatedly acted against their best interests.
One should generally not stereotype people as either good or bad, the way Braverman has, but certainly, as a group which has given tremendous support to the PLO, Hamas, Fatah, Islamic Jihad and other terrorist organizations who for many years have committed atrocity after atrocity, the Palestinian Arabs have not demonstrated either goodness or patience.
Comment:
We are doing wrong. We have blood on our hands. Yes, there have been Palestinians who have perpetrated acts of violence. But we must look to the cause.
We are doing wrong. We have blood on our hands. Yes, there have been Palestinians who have perpetrated acts of violence. But we must look to the cause.
Analysis:
By appeasing Arab intransigence, we do have blood on our hands. We also do need to look at the cause, which is far different from what Braverman later asserts.
Comment:
Before I visited the West Bank in 2006, I too looked for a balanced discourse. Where was the acknowledgment that the 1948 War was a war of self-defense, a war to prevent yet another extermination? Didn't they reject the 1947 United Nations partition plan? Is not the occupation, although lamentably abusive of human rights, necessary for creating defensible borders and national security?
Before I visited the West Bank in 2006, I too looked for a balanced discourse. Where was the acknowledgment that the 1948 War was a war of self-defense, a war to prevent yet another extermination? Didn't they reject the 1947 United Nations partition plan? Is not the occupation, although lamentably abusive of human rights, necessary for creating defensible borders and national security?
Analysis:
Basically, yes, despite Braverman's later distortions and mischaracterization of the so-called "occupation."
In United Nations Resolution 242, the Security Council called for a peace agreement which included a definition of secure borders. Until Israel's Arab neighbors agree to such borders, none exist and the "occupied" territory is more accurately labelled disputed territory.
Even without the agreements called for by the Security Council, Israel long ago gave over to the Palestinian Authority the administration of the disputed areas inhabited by the overwhelming majority, approximately 95 percent, of the Palestinian Arabs.
Unfortunately, when the Palestinian Arabs launched their terrorist offensive after rejecting peace in 2000, they forced Israel to come back to areas it had gladly left. Neither Israel nor the Palestinian Arabs benefit from the resulting situation, but the blame lies with the latter.
(There is a question about Braverman's claim that he was effectively a Zionist prior to 2006. He was already billed as a board member for the anti-Israel "Partners for Peace" when he appeared at the First Congregational Church that year and one wonders about joining the board of such an organization so soon after his alleged conversion. Also, in another article, available at
Comment: I now see that responsibility for denial and the distortion lies equally, if not more, with us. The 1948 War, although it undoubtedly protected the Jewish inhabitants of Palestine from hostile Arab armies, was part of a larger plan to displace the Palestinians and claim the entire land for a Jewish State.
Analysis:
The Zionists had accepted the United Nations Partition Plan. If the Arabs had also accepted it, there would have been no war and sixty years of bloodshed and war would have been avoided. The war was in now way a plan by Israel, which had just declared its independence when six Arab armies invaded it.
Comment:
Israel's policies post-1967 are a clear continuation of this plan. Israel is not a partner for peace. This reality is surfacing, slowly, inexorably.
Israel's policies post-1967 are a clear continuation of this plan. Israel is not a partner for peace. This reality is surfacing, slowly, inexorably.
Analysis:
Israel is the only nation which ever won a war and then sued for peace. The clock does not stand still, and obviously any settlement now would have to be different from that which would have been possible in 1967 if the Arabs had responded positively to Israel's offer of peace rather than with the infamous "Three No's" of the Arab League in Khartoum: no recognition of Israel, no peace with Israel, no negotiations with Israel.
Comment:
I urge my fellow Jews to go, as I have, and see the Separation Wall -- not the sanitized Israeli section, but the real story of the Wall, reaching deep into the West Bank to grab huge chunks of territory and separating Palestinians from Palestinians and farmers from their land. Ask yourselves, when you see it, if you think the wall is for security. Visit the checkpoints and feel the shame and disgust that are the only emotions one can feel for the baseless humiliation and oppression being perpetrated in our name.
I urge my fellow Jews to go, as I have, and see the Separation Wall -- not the sanitized Israeli section, but the real story of the Wall, reaching deep into the West Bank to grab huge chunks of territory and separating Palestinians from Palestinians and farmers from their land. Ask yourselves, when you see it, if you think the wall is for security. Visit the checkpoints and feel the shame and disgust that are the only emotions one can feel for the baseless humiliation and oppression being perpetrated in our name.
Analysis:
The Israeli government long resisted putting up any barrier and only began building it when the Israeli people, enraged at having their children blown up by bombers at discotheques, shopping malls and pizza parlors, starting raising money and building sections themselves. The government continues to drag its feet and large parts of the barrier have yet to be built.
Far from "grab(bing) huge chunks of territory," in most places the barrier is quite close to the Green Line with only a small portion of the disputed territories lying on the Israeli side of the barrier. If the intent was to grab land, the barrier would certainly have been routed far differently.
The barrier, along with other Israeli security measures which people like Braverman also condemn, has succeeded in drastically reducing the frequency of suicide bombings against Israelis.
Comment:
Go and see the villages being destroyed and the land taken to build a system of Bantustans and erect neighborhoods and towns for American Jews who believe that we have the right to do this. Meet Jeff Halper of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, and understand Israel's campaign to drive out the non-Jewish residents of Jerusalem who have lived there for generations. Meet the Israeli women of Machsom Watch and members of New Profile, who are all struggling to preserve a shred of moral conscience in Israel.
Go and see the villages being destroyed and the land taken to build a system of Bantustans and erect neighborhoods and towns for American Jews who believe that we have the right to do this. Meet Jeff Halper of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, and understand Israel's campaign to drive out the non-Jewish residents of Jerusalem who have lived there for generations. Meet the Israeli women of Machsom Watch and members of New Profile, who are all struggling to preserve a shred of moral conscience in Israel.
Analysis:
In 1967, there were approximately 197,000 Jews out of a total population of 268,000. In 2005, there were 583,000 Jews out of a total population of 839,000. During the time since Israel reunited Jerusalem, the non-Jewish population has grown from 26 percent to 31 percent of the total.
If Israel has been trying to drive the non-Jewish residents out of Jerusalem, it's done a lousy job.
Comment:
These brave Israeli Jews are our present-day Shomrei Yisrael, the Guardians of Israel. Those Jews who seek to suppress criticism of Israel and to block dialogue with the Palestinians are not friends of Israel. Non-Jewish Americans who allow themselves to cooperate with this muzzling of free speech and denial of injustice are complicit in this madness.
Accepting responsibility for the injustice done to the Palestinian people will not destroy Israel. On the contrary -- it will save Israel. My roots go deep in the Holy Land. So do those of my Palestinian brothers and sisters. If we Jews cannot learn to share this land with the Palestinians, we will never have the secure homeland we desire.
These brave Israeli Jews are our present-day Shomrei Yisrael, the Guardians of Israel. Those Jews who seek to suppress criticism of Israel and to block dialogue with the Palestinians are not friends of Israel. Non-Jewish Americans who allow themselves to cooperate with this muzzling of free speech and denial of injustice are complicit in this madness.
Accepting responsibility for the injustice done to the Palestinian people will not destroy Israel. On the contrary -- it will save Israel. My roots go deep in the Holy Land. So do those of my Palestinian brothers and sisters. If we Jews cannot learn to share this land with the Palestinians, we will never have the secure homeland we desire.
Analysis:
It is the Palestinian Arabs who have to learn to share the land.
The Jews have, time and again, offered to share the land and have agreed to every serious proposal. They accepted Britain's severing of Transjordan from the rest of Palestine and then accepted the United Nations Partition Plan, which would have given them little more than half of the 22 percent of Palestine that remained after the severing of Transjordan. Immediately after the 1967 War, they offered to return the captured territories to Egypt, Jordan and Syria in return for peace, but were rebuffed. In 2000, they offered the Palestinian Arabs virtually all of the disputed territories, including portions of their own capital, but were again rebuffed. Not only did the Palestinian Arabs reject that offer, but followed up that rejection by launching a terrorist war that has resulted in thousands of deaths, tens of thousands of injuries and every one of the actions Braverman complains about.
It takes two to tango. Israel still needs a partner if there is to be peace.
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